It's Alive!!

What's alive, you ask? Mind your own business, ass. Needless to say I am pretty awesome, and I will post again to show everyone what's alive, and it will be good.
On to something different: I got a new page of Golden Brown up for the weekend, and the next page is already very nearly done, but you'll still have to wait. Anyone planning a suicide will just have to postpone. I'm hoping to find time to work on a little teaser comic for my next project. I'm unsure at this point whether I'll continue the weekly posts once the new story is started, but I guess that's some ways off yet, so I have time to figure things out.
What am I watching?
Suburban Nightmare- Another pleasant surprise from Shock-o-Rama. A suburbanite serial killer couple go through a very messy break-up. This is a great concept for a horror film! The whole "sadistic serial killer" thing was never completely at the forefront of the story--it was treated more like a passionate hobby than anything, and the actors did a good job making the whole killing thing a natural occurrence, like a couple of sociopaths. The funny thing was that they had real couple-type problems, and they both nitpicked eachother and bickered. Their daughter is no more innocent, I believe. Only an adolescent, she manages to turn her parents against eachother by accusation of child molestation, though it comes back to bite her in the end. The ending is truly disturbing, but cannot be imagined any other way. And it happens to be my favorite kind of ending.
Marihuana- Much like Reefer Madness, but with the insane guy in the chair fidgeting. More American youth corrupted, but this time a girl becomes a dope pusher. What made it worth watching? 1936 nudity! A bunch of girls get high and go skinny dipping. If it was drugs that made girls do that, I would have become a dope dealer myself.
Cocaine Fiends- Another anti-drug movie, and much like Reefer Madness and Marihuana, pure propaganda. Dope has become a more general term, apparently. A small town girl is taken in by a drug dealer and moves to the city in hopes of making it as a star. Her dreams fall flat, and she becomes a coke addict. Her brother comes to the city in hopes of finding her, but instead he finds a coworker who likes to have a good time and before we know it, he gets hooked, too. Silly wholesome American youth.
A Night to Remember- I managed to catch this on TCM yesterday. I can't believe I've gone my whole likfe without seeing this movie! It's a 1958 version of the sinking of the Titanic. Watching it, I realized that James Cameron lifted some of his scenes from this movie, like Molly Brown bitching out the sailor to turn the boat around and pick up som of the people that had jumped from the ship, as well as the scene where the musicians are formally dismissed by their bandleader, only to return after seeing that he's still willing to play through the occuring tragedy (my favorite scene in the whole movie). There are no overshadowing love stories here--sure, there are several scenes depicting lovers husbands wives and how they act towards eachother, but the whole of the tragedy is emphasized here. One of the standout characters, besides Tucker McGuire (played Molly Brown) was Laurence Naismith, who played Capt. Edward John Smith. In my opinion, even though slightly inaccurate (this movie was filmed decades before the Titanic excavation revealed that the ship had broken in two) it was far superior to Titanic.

Busy Weekends, and I'm Juggling Chainsaws, Devils, and Clowns...

It feels like I haven't had time to post much lately. I've been busy doing working on a little project which I hope is successful, but we'll see.
I have a new page of Golden Brown out on time this time! Last week my schedule went awry. This week I actually had it done early, for a change. I'm getting so anxious to finally wrap up this story (which I once predicted would be done by late summer last year, what the hell was I thinking?!). I have some ideas bouncing around in my head, one in particular that I'm trying to prepare for (hint: not a comedy). I still struggle with the duality of wanting to have someone else write, and wanting to micromanage and do it all myself, the latter being much harder for me.
This weekend Karissa's sister is graduating. She's having a Hawaiian themed open house, so we figured since I'm all about awesome lounge shirts I might as well show up in a Hawaiian shirt. Next weekend? Devil's Run! It should be fun, sounds like a pretty massive turnout of cars this year.
What the hell am I watching?
Chainsaw Sally- A librarian with a tragic past moonlights as a serial killer who lives with her goth-effeminate brother--it sounds like a John Waters flick, doesn't it? I do like the soundtrack, which features, among others, a couple Big John Bates songs. I was vaguely annoyed with the discussion about Batman's sexuality--the actually subject matter was fine, but Sally mouths her arguments in such a snide way that she sounds like she's trying to sound smart and bored. My favorite scene in the movie is when Sally takes home a local party-slut, chains her to a wall and pours acid through a funnel down the girl's throat. It must have been loaded with fiber, because it just went right through her. The movie ended well.
Devil's Nightmare-This movie is part of a 4-feature set I got a long time ago and never really watched. Unfortunately, the 4th dvd was all scratched up, so I didn't get to see it. The 1st dvd came with a cool, schlocky intro by a vampire chick and a whole bunch of nudity. On to the movie: Tourists representing each of the 7 deadly sins spend an evening in a castle previously owned by a man who had a pact with Satan. The beginning is very disturbing. A Nazi officer's wife dies in childbirth, and upon hearing that his child is a girl, he puts a knife through the baby. It's one of the few movies that they actually showed the scene instead of cutting away during the violent part. The rest of the movie is slow-paced and wouldn't be worth much except that it's interrupted every now and then with nudity and/or a sex scene. The cheap make-up and slow, deliberate movements of the succubus (oh yeah, there's a succubus in the movie) actually add to her creepy nature, one of the few positives in the movie. My kind of ending, though.
Kill, Baby...Kill- The ghost of a baron's daughter is to blame for mysterious deaths in a Transylvanian village--What the fuck?! Whoever was in charge of thinking of a good American title to this italian horror should have been shot. The trees were very Halloweeny in this movie which added to the moody and broody atmosphere. One thing I absolutely hate: When science is deemed "silly" in comparison to mysticism and sorcery. Talk about the pot calling the kettle black. Just like movies in which someone utters, "some things you just can't explain..." in relation to some miracle or magical occurrence. Yeah, it can't be explained by the person who instantly believes it to be magic. Duh.
Black Sheep- Genetic experimentation on a New Zealand sheep farm goes awry, creating mutated psychotic sheep. Bet you thought I was gonna talk about the Chris Farley movie, huh? I loved this movie! The humor wasn't much, but in certain moments, it couldn't have been placed more perfectly. In the beginning a deformed lamb is accidentally freed from a container marked for disposal, and proceeds to attack its liberator. In one scene, a sheep is stuck in the cab of an old truck with its driver barreling toward a cliff. The driver and other passengers are able to jump off, but the sheep is stuck in the driver seat, and can be seen "screaming" as the truck careens off the cliff. If only a sheep could say "oh shit!" The humanoid sheep and the human-sheep transformation/vaccine scenes were awesome--not the level of special effects I was expecting for this type of movie, but I was pleasantly surprised to see a monstrous, low-bleating two-legged sheep stomping towards me. Best scene in the movie? The owner of the farm, giving himself over to his sheep, strips down and bares himself as a scarifice (hah, sacrificial lamb joke?). One sheep walks right up and bites his wiener. And pulls. And from behind him, we see the wiener stretching about 3 times the length a wiener should stretch.
Kiss me, Kill Me- A witch sets her sights on a photographer and gives her as a gift a doll dressed in leather bondage garb. It's based on a comic strip done by Guido Crepox, of which I've only seen snippets. Good opening credits. Some nudity. Otherwise not much to contribute to cinema. The witch's name (and the original title of this movie) is Baba Yaga. Baba Yikes.
Reefer Madness- Original title is "Tell Your Children". Wholesome teenagers are lured and corrupted by the dope culture, leading ulitmately to vehicular manslaughter and an accidental shooting. The editing is terrible--people occasionally disappear and reappear in scenes, the audio cuts out. It is funny to watch, though. Anyone who thinks this film is useful in the war against drugs is an idiot, the fact that it's pure propaganda is obvious--also that the director either did NO research on the effects of "Marihuana" or else ignored the research he had (like pot giving you violent tendencies and incurable insanity). Anyone who actually resembles the character of Ralph Wiley in this movie should be warned that their pot is probably laced wth PCP.
Drive Thru- The mascot for Hella Burger, Horny the Clown is killing teenagers. I'm gonna go ahead and spoil things a little. The clown is really the ghost of a kid who's dad started the Hella Burger empire. He was tormented by his high school classmates and on his 18th birthday was accidentally killed in a restaurant fire started by said classmates. Fast forward a few years, the kid's back as a clown killing the children of these former classmates. The stereotypes are really annoying and shallow. Seriously, there is NOTHING more to the characters than the various clicks they represent: Wiggers, preps, goth kids, parents who "sold out" and became Republican...which leads me to the next annoying thing. The main character is an outsider type who doesnt eat meat and thinks her ex-hippie parents are big hippocrytes. She has political discussions with them, quick-witted politi-banter. You people know how I feel about teenagers having quick and witty banter. It fucking annoying, and it's a very untrue stereotype. Am I supposed to believe that this punky bitch watches Kieth Obermann? She more than likely has on of those shirts from Hot Topic that states "You laugh at me because I'm different, I laugh at you because you're all the same", conveniently ignoring the ironic fact that there are thousands of these shirts made and that they represent people who live their lifestyles according to certain fashions just like everybody else--obviously nothing annoys me more than people who think they're so different because they listen to moody music and wear dark clothes. I did it, too, but I never thought that set m apart from others. It was more or less the duct tape trench coat that did that. Anyway, one golden nugget in this greasy box was a bit part played by Morgan Spurlock (SuperSize Me). It's one of the only acting roles he's done, and he did an awesome job! I was disappointed he wasn't seen in the movie more.

One Man's Trash Is Another Man's Organ...

We had Spring Cleanup again this past week. I love Spring Cleanup week! People throw out good stuff! Would you believe Karissa and I found TWO more pianos on curbs this year?! I didn't get all excited about nabbing them like last year, though, because they were in worse shape than the piano I found last year. Besides, we have Kevin's piano on loan still. But I did a little organ from the 1970's (I'm guessing at the age) with the push-switches to turn on effects. It actually works just fine, just looks like the wood is peeling a little. Isabella likes it, anyway. Pretty soon we'll be up to our ears in churchy organs. I also found a bigscreen tv. It powers on, but doesn't really do anything else. Never a good sign for a tv, but I'm still hopeful. Karissa found drinking chairs. They're just old lounge chairs with orange pleather cushions, but they look like they're for drinking. The last thing I found was a fairly new stereo sans speakers & power cord, but that stuff was easily found. I love junk and stuff...and some junk. Kevin and Iwere gonna look around at stuff, but we're kinda bad at remembering to call eachother, so I guess we didn't.
I'm still modifying the standup bass, I've stumbled upon some great ideas that just might work for it. I've also made up a couple designs for when I feel brave enough to attempt constructing a new body for the bass. Now that I'm through with school, I've been obsessing over homemade instruments more than anything. You wouldn't believe how fun it is to figure out the dimensions of a standup bass. Or maybe you would.
Anyway...
What am I watching?

Lars and the Real Girl- A guy from a Northern Town (seems awfully Minnesotan) suffers from some personal issues and can't stand human touch. As a result, he orders a sex doll and introduces her to his brother & sister-in-law as his girlfriend, Bianca. They take her to a doctor to get "checked up" and are instructed to play along as though she were real for as long as Lars needed. The whole small town is roped into the act, and eventually Bianca is accepted, and even loved by the entire town.
This movie fooled me at first by making me think it was a chick flick, but there's a fucked up element underneath. He's suffering a real delusion, and throughout the movie we find that Bianca's history mirrors Lars' own, and as she becomes "sick", it's revealed that he's subconciously trying to deal with his illness. All the characters have their quirks in this movie, but none are the shallow predictable type you see in a chick flick.
Juno- An eccentric, punky 16-year-old finds herself pregnant by accident. She decides right away to give it up for adoption to a nice couple. She ends up bonding with the husband of the couple (played by Jason Bateman) over music and horror movies, and pushing away her baby-daddy. Towards the end, her relationship with Bateman's character is still platonic, but at times seems ambiguous and disturbing.
The dialogue was well-paced, but the teen-witticism gets old fast.
Also, I'm sick of movies in which the main character, though very young, seems to be an expert regarding particular genres of music and spouting off "educated" opinions as though they were pop-culture fact (imagine a 16-year-old doing a Patrick Bateman (American Psycho) impression).
Night At the Museum- Ben Stiller plays a guy who has trouble figuring out what he wants to do with his life--in his forties. To get his son's respect, he gets a job as a Night Guard in a New York museum. Because of some Egyptian tablet, everything comes to life in the museum at night, and Stiller's character has to try to maintain control.
It's a bit weird since the exhibit characters all know that they're not real, but insist on playing out their roles anyway. It would have been better if the whole Egyptian tablet concept had not been explained. Too much "Ben Stiller" humor, though. Watch any 3 of his movies and you'll find a point where he's making fun of someone. It's not funny and sounds like he's really straining to find good shots to take at his opponents, unsuccessfully. Good Ben Stiller humor comes in the form of Mystery Men.
Raising Cain- A guy with multiple personality disorder commits murders and unsuccessfully tries to frame his ex-wife's lover. That's really simplifying the plot, but it wasn't a bad movie. And let me say that John Lithgow seems most comfortable in the role of a villian. He plays not only Cain, but also Cain's personalities and even Cain's father. His kind of evil is whisky (goes down smooth but with a kick). It bears some resemblance to Sybil (which I'm currently only halfway through thanks to Karissa) in that the disorders are the same, and within the movie, Cain's disorder is also turned into a hit TV miniseries.
Cinderella Man- Biopic about James Braddock, a famous pugilist during the Depression. At first, the movie paints a rosy picture of a family man in the late twenties enjoying his boxing fame and doting on his wife and children. When the depression hits, however, the scene of the story changes quickly into depicting th ongoing struggle to survive in the city on what little one had--but still James was apparently a doting father and husband. He may really have been an all-around good guy, but the way he's portrayed seems to be laying it on a bit thick. I do love the use of photo flashes during punch impacts, it really adds to the relevance of the emerging media presence during those times. And, being the sucker that I am, I was was glued to the TV during his fight with Max Baer (Craig Bierko! That was a surprise).
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde- 1920 silent version. Remember, before there was Bela Lugosi, Lon Chaney, Todd Slaughter, Boris Karloff, or even Max Schreck, there was John Barrymore. John Barrymore is awesome. He started out on the stage and moved to the screen, playing Capt. Ahab, Don Juan, Sherlock Holmes, Svengali, and Prince Chegodieff among others (the last name was actually Felix Yusupov, one of Rasputin's assassins, changed in the movie Rasputin and the Empress for legal reasons). He's captured the insane look that was popular in th silent horror films of the '20's. The best scene in Jekyll & Hyde is when Jekyll is asleep and dreams of Hyde as a giant spider crawling up onto his bed. It was creepy as hell.
Dr. Pyckle and Mr. Pryde- Spoof of the story done by Stan Laurel (pre Laurel & Hardy). Laurel did a helluva job playing up the humor of the role, and the writing of the movie itself was actually pretty funny. Not bad for 1925. I wonder if it didn't influence Mel Brooks just a bit?

My Homemade Upright Bass!

I was finally able to get a little video of my homemade upright bass. I modified it over the past few weeks: now it has four strings, homemade tuning pegs, and the two middle strings are raised like on a real upright. It's still not perfect, but way better than it was. The sound is shitty because I had to use a mic and a shitty bass amp to amplify it (eventually I'll get an acoustic pickup or something for it). I plugged a keyboard into the bass amp and got the same quality of sound. Sorry. But I'm still excited about the fact that it works!